Geneva holds off Bartlett

Bartlett’s bats began to get to Geneva pitcher Jordan Touro.

The Hawks piled up 4 runs in the first three innings and were making the sophomore hurler work extra hard to get out of innings. But after a 6-run fourth inning, Touro and the Vikings completely changed their demeanor.

Touro would not allow another hit over the next three innings and picked up his first varsity win as Geneva’s 6-4 lead held up in Upstate Eight Conference baseball action Thursday.

“They had control of the game,” said Touro, who finished his second varsity start with 7 strikeouts in 6 innings. “The momentum just shifted. We took control of the game. They booted the ball around and we took advantage.”

Geneva (4-1, 2-0) scored 6 runs despite recording just a single hit in the fourth inning. Bartlett (3-6, 0-2) had a host of defensive problems which allowed the Vikings 11 batters in the inning.

“We tell the guys to put the ball in play and good things will happen,” Geneva coach Matt Hahn said. “Good teams take advantage of the mistakes of other teams.”

Hawks’ pitcher Cory Motz watched six straight batters reach base — on a hit, 2 walks, 2 errors. Touro actually reached base after he was hit by a pitch from Motz (1-2).

“We were a very charitable team,” said Hawks’ second-year coach Chris Pemberton. “We had 3 errors, 3 walks, and a hit by a pitch in one inning. That’s not a good equation for victory. When things didn’t go our way (Touro) took advantage and capitalized on it. We were a little flat in those middle innings.”

Bartlett was presented with a chance in both the sixth and seventh innings to take the lead. Both times the Hawks stranded runners at second and third.

Touro walked Ryan Roszkowiak and Dan Gallanis with one out in the sixth. Robert Smith reached base on an error to juice the bases for Ben Grear, but Touro got the second baseman to strike out and then induced a groundball from John Fleming to get out of the inning.

Junior Matt Williams picked up the save with, again, Bartlett putting the winning run at first in the seventh. But the junior pitched out of the inning before striking Gallanis out to end the game.

Roszkowiak gave Bartlett a 2-0 lead when he smashed a 2-run homer to dead left in the bottom of the second. The Hawks extended their lead to 4-0 when David Mutter drove in Fleming and Ryan Yore scored off an error on the same play.